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Aloha boys aiming for breakthrough in Metro play

Aloha's Keith Hunter (shown during his team's win over Hood River at Aloha High School on Friday, Jan. 17) and his team are determined to break through in Metro League play this year. Miles Vance/Beaverton Leader

In total, it’s been well more than 1,000 days and counting from the start of Aloha’s unwanted streak to today, and the Warriors are determined to put an end to it this year.

“It was my freshman year when we got our last Metro win,” said Edgar Guerra, a 6-foot-3 senior wing. “I wasn't even on varsity. We lost 21 straight games over the past two years, but we think this could be our breakout year.”

“I think we'll surprise a lot of teams,” said 6-8 junior post Steven Boswell, a second-team all-league pick in 2013. “I think we just need to keep up our team chemistry.”

The Warriors’ play thus far in 2013-14 – they completed their non-league schedule with an 82-36 home win over Hood River on Friday, Jan. 17 – has provided good reasons for optimism.

Aloha went 10-4 in non-league play this year – its third season under head coach Antoine Shired – and sports a win over No. 18 David Douglas in a schedule equally weighted between Class 5A and 6A teams.

And while the Warriors themselves are currently ranked just 29th by the OSAA – the lowest among the Metro League’s six teams - they believe they’ll be able to compete in league play, beginning with their opener at Sunset at 7:15 p.m. Friday, Jan. 24.

“It is a good confidence booster, doing well in the non-league season, but now we’ve just got to focus on the next game,” said 6-1 senior wing Terrell Gayhart. “We can't worry about what happened before. We're just focused on next Friday.”

The Metro League usually presents a pretty good challenge. Last year, the league sent three teams into the eight-team Class 6A state tournament and saw those three finish fourth (Southridge), fifth (Jesuit) and sixth (Sunset).

As daunting as that might sound, the Warriors still believe they can compete this year. And to be fair, the bar might not be quite as high for 2014 - at the end of non-league play, Westview (8-5) is the Metro’s top-ranked team at No. 10, followed by No. 11 Sunset (8-5), No. 13 Southridge (8-6), No. 14 Beaverton (6-6) and No. 16 Jesuit (7-6).

For their part, the Warriors believe their success will be based on defense.

“I think that our full-court pressure, as we get better developed, will build to get some turnovers and some easy buckets,” Boswell said.

“For us, defense is always before offense,” Guerra added. “If we step up on defense, our offense will play off it.”